Rio's Olympic Golf Course Overrun with Capybaras and Crocodiles Days Ahead of Summer Games

With many of the world’s top golfers having already bowed out of this year’s Olympic Games, those intrepid athletes brave enough to make the trip to Rio may be counting on an easier path to victory.

While it’s true that the likes of Jason Day, Jordan Speith and Dustin Johnson won’t be a threat to the attending golfers’ Olympic hopes this year, capybaras, mini crocodiles, monkeys, boa constrictors and other native wildlife will.

The course that will host Olympic golf next Thursday is located in western Rio’s Barra da Tijuca, an upscale neighborhood situated between two large lakes and on the edge of the Marapendi nature reserve.

The course was constructed last year despite protests from environmental activists who feared the devastating effects of encroaching on the reserve that serves as a home to rare butterflies, pines and other species not found anywhere else on the planet, according to The Guardian.

A capybara at the Olympic golf venue

Golf Channel

Because of its location, the course has become a new home for a host of Brazilian wildlife – including the capybara, the world’s largest rodent that can weigh up to 150 pounds.

“They chew down on the grass at night,” Mark Johnson, director of international agronomy for the PGA Tour told the National Post. “There are about 30-40 of them inside the course perimeter, but they live here and we play golf here, we co-exist.”

Rio Olympics Being Plagued By Host of Issues

The course is also home to three-toed sloths, monkeys, boa constrictors, owls and caimans (small crocodiles that can grow up to five feet in length), according to The Post. These critters are such frequent visitors that they’ve got their own local haunts – holes, 2, 3, 5 and 9.

A monkey of the Mico genus at the Olympic golf course

Golf Channel

The abundance of ground-nesting owls on the course could also lead to problems: They burrow into the ground and create holes about 20 centimeters in diameter, which could certainly derail even the best of putts.

A Garcia owl on the Olympic golf course

Golf Channel

While Olympic organizers may not have foreseen these problems, with just days until the Games they’re doing their best to address them.

According to Brazilian newspaper Folha De Sao Paulo, the IOC has arranged to have a team of at least five biologists at the venue to move the caimans out of the way during the match.